Friday, September 12, 2008

African Souvenir

I'm staying with my parents this week so I've had time to browse around the house (and my old bedroom) checking out some stuff. It's been a lot of fun looking at yearbooks, pictures and diaries.

Since my family has travelled a lot over the years, we have collected some weird items. Perhaps the weirdest is a coffin that resides in the lower family room. This was brought back from Ghana by my brother a couple of years ago.

In Ghana, caskets are designed to be symbolic of your life. In this case, it is in the shape of a lion so the prospective owner could be a strong hunter or a virile leader. For a while, my brother also had a crab, an airplane, a cow and something that looked like a cougar.

The lion is a little on the small side so either Ghanians are quite short or else they are chopped up into pieces so that they can fit.

Without a dismembered body inside, it is a great piece of art.

The lion comes complete with testicles which were decorated for Christmas.

It is important to be festive.

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